It's Not Over
by purelydramatic
Summary: Ariadne hasn't gone into the dream world for half a year. Now, Arthur turns up with a new job for her; one that seems easy, but really has lots of danger in store. Bad description. Short begining to a long story. oh, and Inception DOES NOT belong to me.
1. Chapter 1

It had been many months since the Fisher job. Ariadne had done her best to return to normal life. It wasn't easy; she was still afraid to fall asleep and dream. Many nights she had stayed up, drinking caffeine, refusing to drift away. She was sure, that if she did, she would see things she wanted to forget that happened during the job. Things like watching Saito in pain, unable to die. Mal and Dom's world. Mal's murderous rage. And Arthurs kiss…

Not that that was a _bad_ memory. But still….it's not like it was a passionate, purely romantic kiss. Just an attempt at distracting the projections. Nothing to get excited about.

To make things worse, Ariadne hadn't heard from any of them. Not once. No one calling to see if she made it back to Paris ok, no one checking how she was dealing with the job. It made her a little angry. What, did they think they could say Hey, we need you to do this really complex life-threatening job, and after that, even though you won't be able to go back to your ordinary life, we're just going to disappear and never come back? That was a load of bull. Didn't they care about her at all? Didn't they care that they had practically unhinged her grasp on reality?

Cobb, she could understand. The only reason he had taken the job was because it was the only way to get back to his kids. He had gone back to his life, and she would feel bad disrupting it. Saito…well, Saito was a rich business man; it's not like he kept in touch with every person he's ever hired. But what about Arthur? And Eames and Yusuf? She knew it had been long enough that they could contact each other now. But every day, she was disappointed. It was only a giggly friend on the phone, asking for advice on boys; she only received junk mail and bills. When she scanned her e-mail, there were only messages from some relative back home, babbling about the week's dull events.

Maybe, maybe it would sting so much if she only had something in reality to keep her from thinking about the dream world. But she had nothing. Schoolwork? Hardly exciting. No great, wonderfully talented friends to keep her busy. There was only nightlife in Paris for those who had a life. Which, now that she thought about it, she really didn't. She did like her classes in college; but once she was done there, what was she going to do? Designing million-dollar homes and skyscrapers would be _nothing_ compared to constructing a dream. Like Arthur said, there was really nothing like it.

She desperately wanted a job offer. Inception, extraction, anything that had to do with dreams would do. She missed it like one addicted to nicotine misses cigarettes. But even when she yearned for it, even when she had dreams about constructing dreams, she couldn't help but wonder if it was wrong to want something so dangerous. To desire something that could destroy her world, or create it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok hi! I forgot to put a paragraph before my first chapter, and I almost forgot the part about inception not belonging to me. So I put it in my title. Anyway, I promise this chapter will be a lot longer! And this is rated T for language. Thanks for the reviews!**

**Disclaimer- Inception DOES NOT belong to me. I'm not that smart. It belongs to that brilliant guy named Christopher Nolan.**

Ariadne woke to the sound of beeping. Groaning, she looked over at her alarm clock. 7:30. She had overslept by an hour. How had she not heard the alarm? Probably because she had only gotten to sleep at 1 in the morning. She had stayed up until 11:30 doing her paper for professor Miles, and after that….she had been afraid to sleep. Like every day for the past six months, she had been afraid to dream. Therefore, she had lain awake in bed, sweating, pinching herself every time her eyes started to close. But she couldn't keep it up. Eventually, her eyes did close- and stayed close, for 6 and a half, surprisingly dreamless hours.

As she hurriedly dressed, she contemplated this. She wasn't superstitious, but now, she saw the dream-free night as a bad sign. It had been the first night for six months she had not dreamed. And while it had been nice not being haunted by flashing images, it also worried her. What did it mean? What did the whole damn thing mean?

Ariadne quickly brushed her teeth and brushed her hair. She grabbed her book bag and stuffed her essay into it. Then, she opened the door, closed and locked it, and ran down the stairs. She opened the back door to get to her motor scooter and saw... a very familiar, suit-clad, man with slicked-backed hair leaning against her light blue scooter. Arthur. Ariadne felt a surge of joy, and then, slowly, a cold fury spread pervaded through her, a fury she wasn't aware she was capable of. Suddenly, she wanted to hit something. Or somebody. The man lounging in front of her seemed like a good option.

"Hello, Ariadne."

She decided the best thing was to ignore him. She made to move past him and get on her scooter, but one of his arms shot out and stopped her in her tracks.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked calmly.

"Excuse me, but I'm late for class." She snapped.

He did not relax his grip on her arm.

"What's up with up with you?"

Ariadne snorted. "Is that a, why are you being a bitch, what's up with you? Or a, how's the last six months of your life been, what's up with you?"

Arthur didn't bat an eye. He did not show a sign of pity or sympathy for her suffering. Instead, he said nonchalantly, "The first one, please. I don't think you're this mad because you're late for your class."

Ariadne stared at him incredulously. Then she shook her head. "God, guys are REALLY stupid." She huffed. "To answer your question? I'm furious because _you're_ here. If you had come, oh, I don't know, FIVE MONTHS AGO, maybe I'd actually be glad to see you. But right now? I don't give a damn!" she spit out.

He remained unaffected.

"Hmm. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Wow, really? Because by the tone of your voice, it seems you don't really mean that. I guess you haven't changed much. Same old detached, unimaginative, stupid Arthur!" She knew she should lower her voice, that they were starting to attract stares. But she had never been so angry in her life. It actually felt kind of good, letting her frustrations out. It eased her pain.

For the first time that day, he looked a little uncomfortable. _Good_, she thought.

"Ariadne…I'm sorry. We didn't mean to abandon you. It's just…things got complicated."

"Yeah?" she said icily.

"Listen…we can explain all of it. Just please, come with me right now."

Despite herself, she found she was curious. "Go where?'

"The old warehouse…"

"Why?"

"We've got a new job to do."

**Kind of a cliffhanger! Not really, but whatever. I'll try to put the next chapter up soon. Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, all! **

**Yes, I know I haven't bothered with updating but life has been- tough/crazy. I've been super stressed, I just finished exams, my dog died, and I've just been plain depressed. I haven't had much time to read fanfiction either, but still. But, now that it is break, I'm trying to update- although I'm very tempted to do a chronicles of Narnia fiction. Anyway- I know this doesn't really make up for my abandonment, but try to forgive and forget, yes?**

**Disclaimer- don't own it- I'm a teenager, for goodness sake! Just own my new character, William**

Ariadne stepped through the familiar door into the warehouse, followed by a subdued Arthur. The entire car ride over, he had been glancing a little nervously at her and tapped the wheel. He had tried to ask about how school was going, but she had answered every question with an ice-cold glare. It actually made her rather pleased to see him wallowing in his discomfort; he certainly deserved it.

"Hello, Ariadne darling. As pretty as ever, I see". Ariadne found that her greeter was Eames, who was looking fairly relaxed as he lounged in a lawn chair. For some reason, Ariadne did not feel anger towards him like she did to Arthur. Maybe it was because he had greeted her happily. Unlike Arthur. And he wasn't infuriating. Unlike Arthur.

"Hello, Eames. Nice to see you." She replied, a little cautious, but still friendly. Arthur frowned in confusion; probably trying to figure out why Eames wasn't being yelled at. Butthead.

Next, up came Yusuf, with his usual glasses and jacket, giving her a little peck on the cheek, and talking excitedly about a new formula he had come up with. Arthur cleared his throat, annoyed and directed the room's attention to one last figure.

"Ariadne, this is our new Extractor, William Sanders. He's not as good as Cobb- but he's still pretty damn good"

The man in question was rather handsome, with a mix of intense and soft pictures. He had curly black hair that was pulled back in a ponytail at the back of his head. His eyes were dark and piercing, and his nose was a little crooked, like it had been broken. His face seemed like it had been sculpted, but, Ariadne mused, it was a NICE sculpted look.

William bent over her hand and kissed it, causing her to blush. "A pleasure, Miss Ariadne" he said in a deep, British voice. It was a sort of sexy voice- not deeply seductive, just attractive.

"Perhaps we should get straight to the matter at hand? So we don't have to be here all night?" Arthur's smooth voice rang out, barely concealing his irritation. _Wait, irritation? Why is Arthur irritated at this?_

They all sat down in the poorly arranged lawn chairs, and got down to business.

"Does anyone here know who Harry Weathers is?" Arthur questioned in his it's-time-to-work tone.

"Yeah, sure, I've heard of him. Isn't he that billionaire that runs Weathers Banks?" William questioned.

"Exactly."

"Oh god" Ariadne cut in. "We aren't going to do another job involving corporate leaders trying to get their enemies out of business again, are we?"

"Uh, no. This is a family affair. "Arthur replied.

"Ooh, a _family_ affair. You make it sound so _dirty,_ Arthur!" Eames chuckled.

Arthur ignored him. "Ok, here's the deal; Harry Weathers is old. He's pretty unhealthy right now, and he's really concerned for his empire. Now he's expecting his son to take over for him, and his grandson after that. Only problem? His son, Anthony Weathers, is a nearly-forty bachelor. He tells paparazzi that he has absolutely no plans to marry. See the dilemma for Harry Weathers?"

"Yeah," William murmured, twiddling his thumbs, "No heir after Harry and Anthony die. The empire Harry worked so hard on will fall apart."

"Precisely. So, what Harry Weathers is asking for, in return for a HUGE sum of money? Using Inception, we're going to make Anthony fall in love and marry and have kids."

They all stared at him. "I'm sorry, what?" Eames said confusedly.

"You heard me. Harry gave me the specifics of what he wanted to happen. Five levels- don't look like that, it will be easy. First level- he meets the girl, they talk a little. Second level- runs into girl again, asks her if she wants to get a drink with him. Third level- they have their first serious date. Fourth level- they have been dating for awhile now, and they sometimes live together. Fifth level- he proposes and they plan their wedding. During this time, we will slowly plant the idea that he's falling in love with this girl; when he wakes up, the idea will still be there, and he will propose."

"So…so basically, we're going to make him fall in love with some girl in his dreams?" Ariadne asked struggling a bit with her wording.

"Yes."

"Ha, falling in love in his dreams? Oh, that sounds _so_ cliché! Well, I'm in; I think this will be fun! Let's start, then!" Eames laughed.

"WAIT!" Ariadne thundered. They all turned to look at her, and they were surprised to see the fury in her eyes. Arthur winced, as he had already experienced said fury earlier that day.

"Um…yes, Ariadne?" William asked cautiously.

And she exploded at them

"Oh. My. God! Who do people thing you are? First of all, five freaking levels? There will only be one person left on the last level! And second? You're going to make this guy fall in love with a make-believe girl in dreams, and then you think he's going to get a sudden urge to propose to somebody?"

"Calm down. It's going to be a real girl. She will come into the dream with us, and after its all over and he wakes up, he'll find her and marry her." Arthur stated stoicly.

"Oh, yeah, that's _ten_ times better! You're not going to let them fall in love on their own accord- you're going to make them fall in love _in their subconscious!_ Do you have any idea how completely disgusting this sounds? You're so willing to throw away a random girl's life for lots of money!"

"Well, darling, that's why we try to find a willing volunteer. I mean, he's a handsome, charming fellow…" Eames trailed off uneasily, because the fire had not died down in Ariadne's eyes.

"So what happens when there is no volunteer?" She was answered with silence. "Exactly! You'll find a girl off the street, offer her a drink, and when she wakes up you'll tell her hey, guess what, you're going to marry this guy! Make him fall in love with you! That's just…so… freaking degrading; I really want to punch you all right now! I can't believe-"

"Shut up!" Arthur hissed harshly.

"How dare you! You disgusting, son of a-"

"No" he whispered curtly. "Don't you hear that?"

They all listened intently; there was a slight scuffle at the door. It sounded as if someone was trying to force themselves in.

"I don't suppose we were expecting anyone else, were we?" William whispered.

Arthur shook his head. "Hide!" he whispered, and shut off the lights.

Ariadne scuttled behind the large desk, her anger now forgotten. She couldn't imagine why anyone would try to break in- unless they were pissed-off hit men. The only sound that could be heard was everyone's labored breathing.

Then many things happened at once; the door burst open, the lights were swiftly turned back on, and rough but somehow gentle hands seized Ariadne, dragged her to where the chairs were, and forced her to the floor with her hands behind her back. Temporarily blinded by light, she struggled against her captor, when she heard a chilling female voice mock, "Long time, no see, hmm Eames?"

**Yay! End of third chapter! Like it, hate it? Want to see what William looks like? Read and review please and I will answer all your questions!**

**I don't know when I will review next; this story has been sort of hard for me to write. But, I wish you all happy holidays! Now, ****The Hobbit**** is calling me! Toodles! **


	4. Chapter 4

** Erm…. Hi? **

**(Cowers in terror as several upset readers give death glare) I know, I know I haven't updated in what, 5, 6 months? I'm a seriously terrible updater, but I've been amazingly stressed- guild, school musical, arts festival, finals- I have been in MAJOR bitch mode- as my close friends can attest to (I know you are laughing to yourself as you read this. You know who you are). **

**BUT.**

**It's summer vacation now! So I will actually be able to write and update. Well….after my trip. Which I'm leaving for this week. And not coming back for almost three weeks. Heehe. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, and I might put pics of ocs on my profile. By the way, I am very heavy on ocs. And to those who read the earlier version of chapter 3, I changed Michael Weathers name- almost exactly the same as Michael Weatherly, who is who I see as the character. So his name is now Leon Weathers.**

** Things get a little (well, maybe a lot) intense towards the end of this. If you are uncomfortable with the TALK of adult themes, then do not continue! I promise that I do not describe it in detail.**

**DISCLAIMER! - inception does not belong to me. There's this one dude- maybe you've heard of him? - named Christopher Nolan. And he. Is. A. GENIUS! And he happens to own inception. And I don't. Which is unfortunate to say the least. **

Ariadne blinked as her eyes got used to the abundant bright lights of the warehouse. She could hear struggling on either side of her, and turned to see what was happening. She realized she was stuck in the middle when she saw Arthur and Eames to her left, and Yusuf and William on her right. Yusuf was making several weak attempts to throw his captor off who…Ariadne blinked again, this time in surprise.

A beautiful, dark haired woman was holding him, a fair-sized man, like it was no trouble at all. As she looked around, she realized that _all _of the intruders were women, clad in black leather outfits. William was growling at the ghostly pale, doll-like blond woman who had her knee digging into his back and her arms holding him in a full Nelson. A short, fiery-looking Latina had a surprised Arthur locked in an iron grip. Eames, (who she noticed looked more annoyed than surprised), was being held in a headlock by an absolutely ethereal lady- she looked tall, and was pale, with long black hair and deep blue eyes.

Ariadne twisted around to see who was keeping her arms behind her back, and was met by the face of another blond woman, except that this one had dark eyes and a bold, square jaw. The woman who was holding her seemed a little startled when Ariadne had wriggled around, but quickly shoved the architect's face back to the ground. However, her hesitation had provided Ariadne with the opportunity to see the final intruder; a somewhat tall, dark –haired, dark-eyed, tattooed woman with a face devoid of emotion. Ariadne was more scared of the blank face than if the woman had an expression of fury. It meant she was either an emotionless, miserable human being or…she was a robot***.**

How did all of this happen? One second, they were heatedly discussing the job, and the next they were all pinned to the ground by a group of young women. Ariadne wasn't trying to be sexist; she is a female too. But it seems so unlikely that six women were able to overpower a highly-skilled group of extractors, at least not without planning. One of the women seemed to know Eames, from what she had said earlier. Who were they? How do these strangers know who they are?

Ariadne glanced at her colleagues to see if they were panicked. They had all stopped struggling, but all of them (except Eames) seemed wary and confused. Even Arthur, who always knew _everything_ there is to know, seemed bewildered. What is going on?

The lone standing woman studied them all with an air of disinterest, then produced a thick coiled rope from behind her back, and bent over Eames. He opened his mouth to protest, but she silently pulled out a Glock hidden at her waist and pointed it at Ariadne. Ariadne's breath hitched, her eyes flitting between her British friend and the cold woman threatening her. _Why did she point the gun at me? _She thought_." Why not Arthur, or Yusuf, or William, or bloody Eames himself?" _ Not that she wanted any of them to die. She just wondered why the woman had chosen to point the gun at her.

Eames made a slow, careful sign of surrender, and the woman began tying him up. The beauty that had been holding him let go so he would be easier to tie up, and then stood. Ariadne was right; she was tall, towering over everyone else. The giantess retreated, and leaned against Arthur's desk, with an expression similar to the tattooed woman. The latter finished tying up Eames, then moved on to Arthur, and Ariadne, and silently tied up William and Yusuf up as well. No one tried to resist her, wary of her gun. As soon as she finished tying up Yusuf, she stepped back, so she was in line with the other women, who were now standing in a horizontal line in front of their captives. They had been tied with their hands behind their backs, kneeling with their ankles tied too, in an extremely uncomfortable position.

No one spoke; each side was just observing the enemy. Finally, with a nod from the tattooed woman, (Ariadne assumed she was the leader), the Latina barked, "Unexpected, huh? Didn't think we could get to you? Well you wouldn't; you don't even know who we are. Except he-" she pointed a calloused finger at Eames "should know who she is." She finished, with a head jerk to the tattooed woman.

Silence. The dark haired woman who had held Yusuf cleared her throat and said 'You know, now would be a good time to say something." Ariadne's eyes widened in surprise- she was French, and youngish, and dark-haired and beautiful, and had piercing gray-blue eyes. At first, she thought her nightmares were coming true, and Mal was back to hurt her. But Ariadne looked again, and she saw that the woman didn't actually really look like Mal, and while she wasn't smiling, she didn't have an aura of hostility like Mal did.

Eames snorted. "Oh, now I'm allowed to speak, am I?" The tattooed woman glared at him. "Yeah, I know her. I don't know why she and her team of crazy bitches are here to kill us, though."

The other five women stiffened at his words, but the tattooed woman hissed at him. "First of all, _Eames_, they are not my team of crazy bitches; they have names-"

"Oh, funnily enough, so does my team!" Eames said sarcastically. "Imagine that… why don't we get all cozy and introduce ourselves? Hello everyone, my name is Eames, and my friends are Arthur, Ariadne, William, and Yusuf. "

"I don't give a sh-"

"Now, now, dear, remember your manners. C'mon, I'm sure these ladies are dying to introduce themselves."

"Melania, Selena, Patia, Alisa, and Calista." The woman gestured impatiently to the giantess, the Latina, the normal blonde, the ghostly blonde, and the French girl, respectively. "That's beside the point. We're here because-"

"You know, I think you are only here because you want to punish me for leaving you." Eames said pleasantly. _Crazy ex-girlfriend, then_ Ariadne thought to herself.

The woman lost her emotionless mask, and her expression became one of pure fury. "You make it sound like you were ALLOWED to leave!" she shrieked.

"It was my life, and I'm sorry, but I didn't want to be tied down anymore. I'm allowed to make my own decisions! And I left you in capable hands-"Eames shouted angrily

"CAPABLE HANDS? You left me with a bunch of girls who were hardly older than I! You never contacted me after that, you left me alone with them and never bothered to see if I was even still alive!"

Ariadne stared at her in shock. Was she just insane, or misinformed? Ariadne wasn't an expert, but she didn't think you stayed close to an ex-boyfriend after your breakup.

"Yeah, well, they were your friends, and who else were you going to go to? God, I'm gonna kill them for letting you go psycho like this…"

The woman choked on a hysterical sob. "That job was completed already, Eames. _Your _friends saw to that."

Eames was as confused as his audience. "What do you mean?"

She looked up from her lowered lids, and Ariadne thought the hatred there would have made the hatred she had seen in Mal's eyes seem insignificant. The woman was boiling with rage. "What I mean, "she whispered in a low, dangerous voice, "is that _Peter _and _George _and _Basil_ came around a week after you left to see 'how we were doing'. And those bastards, those people you called your _friends_ just… they overpowered us. The only thing they came for was sex; they only wanted to hurt us. And Thalia and Olympe fought back…and the assholes didn't like that and they had a knife…and…god, Eames, I was only eleven years old!" she cried, the hysteria back.

Ariadne was more confused than before; she figured out that the girl wasn't an ex-girlfriend, and she felt sympathy for her, even though she wasn't sure of what was going on. She looked towards Eames, and saw that there was a look of complete horror on his face. "What….what did you do?"

She glared hard at him. "After they got their scared shitless asses out of there, I was alone with two bodies. What was I supposed to do? The police came, and I told them what happened, and as soon as I had the chance, I ran. They knew I didn't do it, but all they wanted me to do was go to an orphanage. There was no way in hell I was going back to one of those. So I ran, and I looked for a job. Course, no one's gonna give a job to a young kid, no matter how hungry they are." She laughed bitterly here, but it sounded more like crying. "It got so bad that I passed out in an alleyway. Best thing that happened to me in a while. These girls found me, and when I woke up, they offered me a well-paying job." She finished.

"What kind of a job?" Eames questioned cautiously.

Another bitter laugh. "People say prostitutes are the worst people in the world, but I disagree. They willingly took me in when no one else did. I was happy to work for them. Been there ever since." A short pause. "That's where I met these five. We've been a group for the past 10 years, since I was 14. And we learned things, together. I could do your forging job better than you could, if I wanted to."

The extractors all exchanged startled looks. The girl knew about their job? About them?

"But enough about me; how has your 13 years of 'not being tied down' been, Eames? How has freedom suited you?" She mocked. "Too difficult to check in on family? Or too difficult to remember you had family?" More confused looks from the extractors. "I would have thought that at least Arthur would know. He is the point man, isn't he? Doesn't he know the most intimate details of your life? Or did you bury me too deep for even him to find?"

She turned her attention from Arthur to the team, and gave them a feral grin. "I'm terribly sorry for being rude. My names Desdemona- I'm Eames' little sister."

**Whoo, finally done with the chapter! It was a little more intense than I thought it would be, and I don't really like it. But it took me forever, so it's gonna stay like this.**

**Reviews are my life. It would make me SOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy if you gave a review, positive or negative! Like it, hate it? Is it moving too fast or too slow? Too intense? Should I change the rating? Anything you have to say is much appreciated!**

***The first person to guess where the quote with a star by it came from gets a character made for them! (Hint- it's on my profile)**

**Instead of adding pics of Leon Weathers, William, Melania, Calista, Patia, Selena, Alisa, and Desdemona to my profile, I decided just to put up the name of the actor or actress, so if you are actually curious about what I see the characters as, then you can check that out. **

**Please read and review and I will try to update as soon as I get back!**


	5. Chapter 5

** I'm baaaaaaaaccccccckkk!**

**Miss me? (Don't answer that. I wouldn't miss me either). But now, I have a BETA! Ok, well technically, it's just me sending my story to my best friend at one in the morning and asking her to make grammatical corrections and give suggestions. And because she is just the most fantastic person en el mundo, she actually does all that stuff! She does have an account, ( . ), but she's not technically my beta. Still, you all should thank her; otherwise I'd never get anything done! **

** So in this chapter, we get a little more detail on the whole Eames-has-a-little-sister-WHAT? Story. I know the end of the last chapter was kind of heavy, so I'm going a bit lighter here. Also, hopefully, we learn more about Desdemona's friends…so yeah!**

**DISCLAIMER! - I am a broke teenager- do I LOOK like I own inception to you? Just own all my oc's!**

**Arthur's POV**

Shock.

That's all he feels.

Eames has a little sister? What the HELL?!

Never once, in the 10 years Arthur had known him, had Eames mentioned his family; it was just something Arthur knew he wasn't allowed to talk about. Living in an orphanage for most of his childhood had scarred Eames, and he certainly wasn't thrilled that his parents had left him there so they could see the world. Arthur knew all this from the back-up research he had done on Eames when he had first met him (What? It's his _job_ to know what's going on with the people he works with. Point Man! _Duh_!).

But a sister never showed in the research. Now, Arthur is not an egotistical man, but he does take pride in his work. He's just being honest when he says he is possibly the best point man in the world (ok, maybe he has a _little _bit of an ego). But the fact that he missed something as important as an effing little sister confuses him, (and SEVERLY annoys him). The only explanation Arthur can think of is that Eames manipulated his own files himself- complicated as hell, and he wasn't aware that Eames had the mental capability (What? No, Arthur didn't just insult the forger-get your act together!). The question is, if Eames HAD altered his own information-highly doubtful- why did he do it? If what the girl said was true, then Eames was an inconsiderate bastard for ditching his own pre-pubescent sister.

Arthur looks around discreetly. Desdemona's followers looked…well, Selena was disgusted, Calista and Melania were curious, and Alisa and Patia- was that boredom? The mixture of expressions didn't help Arthur at all. He couldn't tell whether her friends had known already, or if this was their first time hearing the story. If it was Arthur, he wouldn't have gone off to some warehouse to kidnap some people without knowing _why_. But then again, this is Arthur- who has to know everything.

Yusuf and Ariadne, for their part, had identical expressions of shock. Arthur had a brief feeling of gratitude that this crazy tattooed British sibling of Eames had come with so much drama; it seemed to be an effective way of making Ariadne forget that she was super pissed at him. Good. He could work on that. He was a successful ladies man when he put in a little effort into it. Therefore, he firmly believed that he could get back on her good side in no time. Hmm…very smooth Arthur…very smooth.

Right. Back to the subject at hand.

For the first time in his (admittedly not very long) life, Eames seemed uncomfortable. Embarrassed, even. Psh. Eames, embarrassed? When Hell freezes over. Eames is never embarrassed. Not even on that one night during an earlier job of theirs when Cobb forced them to share a room; Arthur had walked in to see Eames in bed with a woman in the middle of-

_Arthur_…

Right. Focus. Best focuser ever- point man, remember?

Wow. He hadn't noticed this before, but Eames' sister is HOT.

_ARTHUR!_

He's starts to wonder if he always reacts like this in stressful situations. Because that would be just mortifying. What did he put in his coffee this morning?

He knows he has to focus, so he repeats his personal mantra in his head; _this is a life or death situation. If you don't focus, you or someone close to you could get hurt. And that would suck._

It works.

He eyes Desdemona-with professional interest, thank you- and tries to figure her out. People have always been the specialty of Eames, but Arthur is fairly good with people as well. He may not have Eames' charm, but he's good with people in a different way. Smoothly manipulative, is what Eames nicknamed it. Arthur didn't disagree with the description.

The girl's leather motorcycle jacket and black skinny jeans covered most of her body, but Arthur could still see that she had a LOT of tattoos, and there were surely more that were just hidden. She had several piercings too- three on her right ear and two on the left, one in her nose, one in her eyebrow, and he was pretty sure he had seen one on her tongue when she had been screaming earlier. Her dark, attractive features were made darker by copious amounts of black eyeliner, eye shadow, and mascara. With all these embellishments, he wouldn't have been able to guess her age, if she hadn't told them.

Twenty-four. It was so young; to go through all the things she had gone through. His gaze slid discreetly back to Ariadne. She was the same age as this girl, Eames' sister, who had her innocence destroyed and her life ruined before she was even a teenager. What if all of this had happened to Ariadne? What if she was standing here, ready to kill all of them? Arthur's stomach clenched at the thought. Not her. God, not her. He hadn't been aware his feelings had been so strong, but there it was; he would do anything he could to protect her.

He turned back to Desdemona- he looked at this broken, wild creature, and he, he who only handed out subdued emotion in carefully measured quantities- he felt an overwhelming sense of pity, that started in his chest, and made its way to his throat. She had been nothing but hostile towards him, but, he figured this was how she was to everyone, and that obviously stemmed from her awful later childhood. Arthur had almost completely rid himself of his dislike of Eames, but it came surging back with such intensity, that he surprised himself.

This, funnily enough, didn't happen very often. If Arthur had a dollar for every time he had surprised himself, he would only have $7.50. No, the fifty cents wasn't a mistake- he had only half-surprised himself when he had kissed Ariadne back during the Fisher dream. See, he wasn't at all surprised by his own suaveness and cleverness during and after the little event, or by how pleased she had seemed. No, he was shocked that he had actually had the balls to kiss her in the first place.

_Ahem._

Arthur starts to wonder if the Latina had some chemical rubbed into her skin that made him go all loopy when she tackled him. Or…something? _Wow, Arthur,_ the snide little voice in his head that sounds exactly like Eames chuckles. _That was incredibly intellectual. And sensible. Oh, and a little bit racist, too._

Shut up, Arthur tells the voice. I'm not usually like this. I always have answers. I'm always precise and on top of things. They must have done something to me, he reasons. After a pause, he addresses the voice again- You'd better not piss me off again- you sound way too much like Eames, and HE'S pissing me off- or I'll punch you in the face.

_You'd be punching yourself in the face, mate, _the voice points out helpfully. _But did you think that maybe, because you DON'T have answers, and you're NOT on top of it, you're acting like a kid high on his mum's drugs he shouldn't 'ave touched?_

Arthur considers this; it's a good theory, he muses. In fact, the more he thinks about it, the more reasonable it seems. The solution he comes to is that he needs to demand information ASAP- and then, he'll be back to normal- cool, calm, and completely good-looking.

_Speaking now, Arthur._

Right.

**Well, that was chapter five! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter; imagining me in Arthur's head was quite hilarious. I was actually going to have this out a LOT sooner for you guys, but I was having the hardest time ending this. So sorry about that.**

**Unfortunately, school is starting for me in less than two weeks (OH SWEET GOD IN HEAVEN NO!). I might be able to squeeze out one more chapter before then, but no promises.**

**So I hoped you like this chapter! Please read, review, ask questions, tell me I suck, propose marriage- the usual spiel!**

**And now, I bid you all adieu! **


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